


Calypso

by KuraiOfAnagura



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Dubious Consent, M/M, Mer!Yuri, Merpeople, Sea Monsters, mer!otabek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 14:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14813034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraiOfAnagura/pseuds/KuraiOfAnagura
Summary: “Otabek,” he heard himself answer. It earned himself another chuckle, which did funny things to his insides.“Well then, Otabek. What brings a little Shark like yourself down here to little ol’ Yuri?”





	Calypso

Otabek felt physical pain even though his skin was untouched and his flesh bore no wounds. It was his heart breaking that caused the cold knife like sensation between his ribs, as if shards of shells would claw their way out of his body and into the water.  
A part of his mind wondered why there was no blood surrounding him and why there were no sharks snapping at his limbs. Surely the scent of his ache must’ve lured the predators to him by now. He begged for the scene in front of him to end, for a wave to wash them away.

The boy he’d called friend for so long, who’s hair he’d copied as they both were younger, had come down the cliffs to their arranged meeting with the mind to show Otabek ‘ _his most precious’_. Little did Otabek anticipate that it would come in the figure of a girl. And the look Jean gave her was the same Otabek saw in mirroring water whenever he looked at the young human.

Something dark and ugly rose within his chest and without another glance back he let the sea swallow him whole.

 

\--

 

Darkness loomed before him. The white sand with the gentle wave like pattern cut off abruptly into inkier water where the slope dove down into the abyss. Otabek came to a halt. He’d swum nonstop for the last hours. First through the jagged dark stones that encircled their meeting bay, then over the colourful corals that surrounded the small island inhabited by fishers and then for a long, long time over the white, white sand.  
For the first time he’d stopped; suddenly unsure of his decision.  
But as he glanced over his shoulders into the impossible wide blue behind him and as his mind wandered back to his friend… the ache it gave him was enough to steel his resolve. He took a deep breath and dove over the edge into the dark waters.

Down into the darkness, where the sea witches were said to house.

 

\--

 

The shadows immediately crashed over his head like waves as he descended. While the waters were warm where he’d made his decisions, colder tendrils liked over his grey fins the farther down he got.  
Down, down, down, all the way down.  
At first he’d kept his pace close to the sandy surface, but as soon as he saw the lurking eyes of a concealed predator beneath the sand he’d bolted upwards and now swam in what he hoped for a parallel line to the ground.  
Navigation got more and more difficult as the light from above ceased to show him the way. His ancestors have migrated over oceans over and over again with the waning seasons before his pod had decided to build their village under the swallow waves in the southern waters. His century old sense of navigation couldn’t be fooled by the darkness and he knew he was on his right way. Yet it wasn’t much of a help when it came to navigate through the deep, the growing pressure in his body was a sign that he’d reached a depth he’d never reached before, but other than that he was completely lost.

Otabek didn’t know how long he swam, his sense of time got hazy with the surrounding black; alone with his thoughts and his hurt.  
Just before he was about to consider himself crazy he saw the tiniest flicker of light to his right. Abruptly he changed his direction, eager to chase somebody… something… anything in this darkness.

His shark like tail propelled him fast through the cool water, but he seemed to have lost the light. He debated with himself to turn around again as he saw the little flicker again; now coming from his left.  
Otabek was not stupid and this time he took a moment to consider his options before he carefully started into the direction of the light.  
The light must’ve sensed his caution because it appeared much sooner again with a little winking blink. _Mocking him_.

“I refuse to play hide and seek like children. Show yourself.” Otabek strained his eyes to catch some light in the perfect blackness around him, hovering motionless in the water, fists clenched, tail strained, but the first thing that came to his senses was a chuckle from behind his back that reached his ears.

Otabek darted around just in time to see a face within the darkness starting  to glow.

“You’re no fun, little Shark.” The light grew stronger and Otabek was able to figure out the upper part of another Mer’s body. He felt his gills flutter as the beauty in front of him hit him. Pale skin, pale scales, an unearthly white. He had to be the source of the light that’s for sure. His eyes were green and shone on their own, his hair danced like a veil around his head and his expression bore a smirk.

“Are you the witch?” Otabek asked. His tone was brusque because he couldn’t allow himself to be overwhelmed by his beauty and his own fear of it.

The answering smirk told Otabek everything he needed to know.

“I’ve been called many things… but yes, your people from this cute small little village up near the dreaded surface there call me a witch. Though don’t you think it would be… polite as to call me by my name?”

“What is your name then? And why do you dread the surface so much?”

The sea witch took his question as a cue and swam closer to him, revealing more of his body as he let his bioluminescence take over even his smallest fins. Otabek felt himself go rigid, wide eyed the watched the creature as it swam leisurely in circles around him, taking him in hungrily. His initial body was small, but he was surrounded by huge billowing fins, mist like and weightless in the water. Sparkly lights danced around the edges of his fins and two long and thick tentacles ended in a big glowing orb each, by now doubt the source of the earlier blinking lights.  
The creature in front of him looked, smooth, vulnerable… weak.  
But Otabek wasn’t one to be fooled. He saw past the beautiful blinding fins and saw that the witch’s real tail was strong and long, though concealed by rainbow like lights that ran along its length.

“Wouldn’t it be more polite to introduce yourself first? You do, after all, seem to think to know what I am?”

Every cell in his brain told him not to give in to this trap, but one of the glowing orbs passed close by his eyes and for one second all of his vision was bathed in light and his thoughts… stoppe-…

“Otabek,” he heard himself answer. It earned himself another chuckle, which did funny things to his insides.

“Well then, Otabek. What brings a little Shark like yourself down here to little ol’ Yuri?”

“I-“ he started and for the first time since he saw the light remembered the wound in his heart that was inflicted to him just this morning. The sharp ache in his chest was enough to snap his focus back on his task and his mind cleared. Suddenly he could see the sea witch, _no Yuri was his name, wasn’t it?_ in a clearer light. Yes, he was beautiful, but his eyes were too big and eerie how they reflected his own light like shells on the sea floor. He saw how his fins moved in a tightly choreographed hypnotic dance, aiming to withdraw his attention again and again until he was lost.

Yuri must’ve sensed his sharpening focus because he moved faster than Otabek would’ve anticipated with all those hindering appendages.

“Your heart is broken.” Suddenly the witch was close in front of him, one hand flat against his chest. It stung like a jellyfish and the Shark stumbled back a pace, which Yuri followed immediately but refrained from touching him again. Otabek’s eyes hurt from the sudden brightness that filled everything around him; he couldn’t help but stare into the eyes before him. “I can hear your heart’s screams so clearly, its song of pain and loss. It’s what drew me to you, little Shark.”

“I’ve heard of tales that you can grant me a wish? That the sea witches can pass the border of land and sea freely?”

Something like recognition and … _pitty_? flashed in the sea witch’s eyes and Yuri withdrew his light. Basked in darkness once more Yuri appeared again before him, some small strokes with his tail away. His whole body alight, but his fins hung unmoving like thick cloth around his shoulders; nothing to distract Otabek, nothing to lure him.

“I can. I can give you legs instead of a fin. But like everything else it comes to a price. You will lose the one thing that makes your love to recognize you. Be it your voice, your face or your eyes. The spell lasts for three days and in those days every step will cut into your feet, the cursed sun will hurt your eyes, burn your skin. And in the end he will not recognize your love. Your body will become foam and your soul will be mine.

Your heart knows this is your future. You saw the love in his eyes. You never stood a chance.  
This is what your hurt told me, as you got lost in my waters.”

Hearing it so clearly cut deep. More than Otabek thought he’d be able to take.

“Are you willing to take the risk, Shark? Maybe you’ll be the first one to achieve the unachievable? After all there’s still hope, right?” Now his tone was mocking.

Otabek looked past Yuri’s shoulder, his inner navigation trying to access his exact position in the ocean. How deep down was he? Could he maybe reach the lighter waters up there in time?

“If you decide to flee now, the creatures of the deep will come and hunt you. A small fish like yourself will be torn to shreds in no time. I’m sure your flesh must taste sweet.” Unnoticed by Otabek Yuri’d started to move his veil again, with a cruel smirk on his lips he drew closer. The light he created within his body was unlike the sun he knew so well. It was pearly and flickering, a pale yellow, like the gold he found in sunken ships. It was mesmerizing and it drew Otabek in, smothering his resistance. Jean was lost to him and he’d run out of options to reach him ever again.

He felt like giving up, like giving in.

“There is something else I have to offer though, my little Shark. You’ve trespassed the abyss with the intention of committing a taboo. You’re mine now. But you may choose in which way.”

“What do you mean by that?” Otabek knew he’d stared way too long into the flickering and glimmering patterns, that his eyes held a golden sheen themselves already. It was a mistake to come down here, once a sea witch got to him, he was claimed and kept.

“Become mine willingly. Become my mate. You will never be able to leave the deep, but you will be treasured and I will try to make you happy?” Otabek felt slender fingers caressing his face, his skin tingling and numb where Yuri’s venom touched him; making him weak and tired.  
Maybe he’d come here with the intention to die, he mused in his hazy mind. And maybe a mate for live was not the worst outcome for this. Even though he’d be wedded to a witch.

His vision was filled with the orb again and all of his thoughts left him. He felt his tail go lax and his body sinking further down, unable to swim or move anymore. The light was everything that mattered anymore.  
A part of his mind heard himself agreeing to the suggestion. His eyes were trained on the beautiful beautiful mesmerizing wonderful light light light _light_ …   
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Yuri grinning,  showing teeth for the very first time. They were thin and sharp and way too long for his small face. The crack of his unhinging jaw reverberated through him, it grew impossible wide.

Otabek’s eyes only saw the light as his mind was swallowed by darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> For my time zone I’m still within the Mermay, even though I’m really really late >,<  
> I couldn’t decide whether to make Yura a mermaid or Beka and then I took the advice from the Road to Eldorado and decided on both xD  
> Biiiiiiiiig Biology clusterfuck incoming!  
> For Otabek’s pod I had the residential Orca pod’s in mind (mostly living in the northern Pacific), which settled down unlike their still migrating relatives.  
> Beka himself is a blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) though and no Orca (it just wouldn’t have made sense for him to have gills). Jean’s island is located in southern waters where it’s relatively swallow. It’s not unheard of friendships between the people above and below the waves, but generally everybody goes its own ways.  
> Yuri though is a real… well let’s say… not so pretty fish. Yuri’s basic design is an angler fish and after some research I think Bufoceratias wedli is the best catch. Those have two light sources, though I actually had calmars in mind (like Lycoteuthis lorigera for the small or Architheutes dux for the big one xDDD) for the angler appendages.  
> His bioluminescence is mostly derived by deep sea jellyfish and Ctenophoras (especially the rainbow coloured streaks of light running along his fins). Ah, and the fins are taken from Beta splendes xD Because it wasn’t enough already!  
> And no, this is not an unhappy end xD Yura didn’t eat Otabek.  
> Anglerfish mate for life. The much smaller male attatches itself to the female’s body and share their nutrients and bloodstream. Actually science didn’t know male anglerfish existed. They always without a fault would catch female fish; it wasn’t until a researcher took a closer look at the small ugly fin and found out: urgh, that’s the male, buddy.  
> So Otabek will be bound to Yuri until his dying day, but at least he won’t be eaten?  
> Isn’t nature wonderful!?
> 
> Please feel free to scream at me on Tumblr! http://kuraiofanagura.tumblr.com/ \0/


End file.
